For the most part, it’s sort of like the mid-1700s relationship between the Brits and the American colonists: salutary neglect. :)
They don’t snap at each other anymore, but for the most part they just don’t pay much attention to one another. However, sometimes Robbie will stick his big nose right up to one of the cats and start sniffing them, which the cats do not generally take kindly to. They won’t take a swipe at him or anything — they’ll just meow and run/jump away. And occasionally, as happened this morning, the opposite will occur: one of the cats gets curious and sniffs Robbie. He doesn’t mind as much, but he’ll sniff back.
They drink out of the same water dish (not at the same time, of course). We have to keep the cat food out of Robbie’s reach, because he likes it better than his own food. :) This is very helpful when we spill cat food, though: he’s a very efficient vaccum cleaner…
There are more than two other words ending in -uum in English. Continuum is a commonly used one, but there’s also residuum, mutuum, and triduum, among others.
July 31st, 2005 at 6:47:27 pm
What, exactly, is the cats’ relationship with Robbie like?
July 31st, 2005 at 7:18:07 pm
For the most part, it’s sort of like the mid-1700s relationship between the Brits and the American colonists: salutary neglect. :)
They don’t snap at each other anymore, but for the most part they just don’t pay much attention to one another. However, sometimes Robbie will stick his big nose right up to one of the cats and start sniffing them, which the cats do not generally take kindly to. They won’t take a swipe at him or anything — they’ll just meow and run/jump away. And occasionally, as happened this morning, the opposite will occur: one of the cats gets curious and sniffs Robbie. He doesn’t mind as much, but he’ll sniff back.
They drink out of the same water dish (not at the same time, of course). We have to keep the cat food out of Robbie’s reach, because he likes it better than his own food. :) This is very helpful when we spill cat food, though: he’s a very efficient vaccum cleaner…
July 31st, 2005 at 9:03:03 pm
Woof
:)
August 1st, 2005 at 3:48:21 pm
Brendan and Joe - logophile and logorrheic - there are three words in the English language which have an ending of ‘-uum’ …
*cough* “vacuum” is one of them …
What are the other two ?
August 1st, 2005 at 6:02:50 pm
There are more than two other words ending in -uum in English. Continuum is a commonly used one, but there’s also residuum, mutuum, and triduum, among others.
August 2nd, 2005 at 3:25:23 pm
Mike - congrats !
You get me with “triduum”, since it has an esoterically-common usage …
“mutuum” is still legal jargon enough to not count … (grin) …
I shoulda said “… in comparatively common usage …” …